"It Might as Well Be Spring" opens Brad Mehldau's 1995 debut album Introducing Brad Mehldau with a bold statement of intent. Richard Rodgers's composition, written with Oscar Hammerstein II for the 1945 film State Fair, receives a dramatically reimagined treatment with its 40-bar AABAC form in G taken at a brisk 272 BPM. Mehldau's three choruses of solo piano improvisation immediately announce the qualities that would make him one of the most influential jazz pianists of his generation: a sophisticated harmonic vocabulary that draws from classical music as readily as from jazz, a rhythmic approach that challenges conventional notions of swing, and a narrative sensibility that builds extended improvisations with architectural logic. The performance features only Mehldau, bassist Larry Grenadier, and drummer Jorge Rossy, the trio that would become one of the most important small groups in modern jazz. At this early stage, the trio's collective identity is already forming, with Grenadier and Rossy providing a supple, responsive foundation that enables Mehldau's exploratory approach. The choice of a Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune as the album's opening track signals Mehldau's intention to engage with the Great American Songbook tradition while bringing a thoroughly contemporary perspective to the material.
